RR Donnelly
Closing OR Book Plant
RR
Donnelly has announced it
is closing its Gresham OR commercial and book printing plant
August 1, leaving 113 workers unemployed. In 2006 Gresham gave
Donnelly a 5 year tax exemption for a $30 million facility expansion.
B&N Founder
Stepping Aside
After
purchasing a single Barnes & Noble on Manhattan in 1971, and
eventually managing a chain of 640 national bookstores, Leonard
Riggio is retiring and remains optimistic about book retailing.
5 Years Later
Borders CEO Lays Blame
Although
he was only CEO of Borders for 19 months, Mike
Edwards analyzes Border's bankruptcy in which Edwards
and his board were financially rewarded ($8.3 million) while the
store employees (who were the best thing about Borders) got
unemployment benefits. Worse, top
managers right to the end caused the bankruptcy.
Dorling
Kindersley For Sale
When
our children were small their favorite books were DK. They were
generally oversized and very colorful and covered everything from
planets to insects, anatomy to ocean life. Penguin
has announced DK is for sale.
2015 Book Sales
Up, Revenue Down
Trade
book sales increased by just 0.8% last year while overall revenue
fell 2.6%. Children's ebooks fell 43% while adult ebooks declined
9.5%
Amazon Takes on
eLearning
Despite
the fact that most studies indicate children learn best from ink and
paper books, the NYC
school system inked a $30 million contract with Amazon to design
digital educational products.
Reviving the
Failing eBook Subscription Model
Apparently
what's been missing all along for ebook subscription providers
(besides profits) is curated
content! Who knew?
Designing Covers
101
Admittedly designing
magazine covers has different strictures than designing book covers,
but there are enough thoughtful ideas here
that's it's definitely worth a read.
1851 Printing
Press at Clements Library
Like many
manufacturing products, there was a time when printing presses not
only reproduced art, they themselves were handsomely styled and
elaborately decorated. This
one's gorgeous.
Printers Victims
of New Scam
While
just a variation on previous scams involving checks that can't be
cleared overnight,
this one involves production and shipping. Printers write off too
much debt every year in their zeal to keep the presses producing.
China Reigns in
Apple
With
iPhone sales faltering and stock prices tumbling, the last thing
Apple needed was increased scrutiny from the Chinese government. Last
month China
halted sales from iBooks Store and iTunes Movies 6 months after
each opened.
A B&N
“Concept” Store
After
announcing that B&N hopes to have 4 “concept” stores opening
in 2017, details
are emerging of the first in Eastchester, NY. It is designed
around a former Border's store and hopes to “encourage customers to
buy products online”.
At Last, A Self
Deleting Book
I know
artists shouldn't be concerned about making a buck, so Stefan Ahnhem
won't be too discouraged when the reader reaction to his
disappearing serial crime ebook is underwhelming.
Final Thought
He
wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure, by delighting and
instructing the reader at the same time. Horace
